What is a resident?

Left to right: Assistant professor of pediatrics Ben Hoffman, M.D., and intern in pediatrics Lane Miller, M.D., converse on the Mother-Baby Unit.

If this were Jeopardy, the question to that answer would be: “What is a person who has received a medical degree and who practices medicine under the supervision of fully licensed physicians, usually in a hospital or clinic.”

Put in simple terms, a resident is a doctor in between medical school and his/her career as a pediatrician. Think of it as an apprenticeship of sorts, a specific area of medicine in which the doctor has chosen to specialize.

I am in the fortunate position of working with residents on a daily basis. I am not a doctor or a nurse. I am the program coordinator and serve alongside the program director, making sure the Pediatric Residency Training Program at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital functions properly.

Much like most people outside the health care profession, I did not know what a resident was before starting this position; but it didn’t take long for me to learn about the important work they do.

OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital attracts some of the brightest young medical minds in the field. Our residents excel during their training and go on to do great things in medicine.

We attract quality residents for a number of reasons, but the most apparent to me is the superb personalities we have in our faculty (supervising physicians).

Doerbecher Doernbecher and its training program are known all over the country because of the quality people who work here. The collaborative nature of our teaching hospitals and clinics promotes a constant dialogue between resident and faculty. It allows the questioning of dogma and keeps the physicians on their toes, always needing to keep apprised of the newest research and clinical innovations.

Here at Doernbecher, we have multiple minds contributing to solutions for a patient’s medical problems, as each doctor approaches the patient from a unique perspective. The needs of our patients are always the center of every lesson learned or taught.

For the past couple of months, you have been hearing from the faculty; now you will start to hear from the residents and the vital role they play at Doernbecher.

Each month on the Doernbecher Healthy Families blog, you will get to hear from a resident. They may tell you about an experience they had, a lesson they learned, or a discovery they made. You will have the opportunity to get to know the residents who serve and care for patients at Doernbecher. These individuals are becoming the next generation of great pediatricians and will pass on their wisdom to those who come after — teaching others is an integral part of being a great doctor.